Richard (TV Series)
Richard is a survivor of the outbreak in AMC's The Walking Dead. He is a member of the Kingdom, he is described as "a rugged, no-bullshit survivor who’s very protective of his way of life. He’s straight laced, no nonsense, and is as tough on himself as he is on others." Pre-Apocalypse Washington D.C. Richard was born in the late 1960's and grew up in Washington D.C, extensively little is known regarding the details of his early life however. At the perfect age, Richard grew to become a family man where , he married a woman whom both had a daughter named Katy and the three lived together as a typical family located somewhere near the greater Washington D.C. Throughout his adult life, Richard believed he never personally asked for much and received more than he ever deserved. Bury Me Here Post-Apocalypse After the onset of the outbreak, Richard and his family found refuge inside a large tented community, however several problems arose within the community, Richard, however, never acted upon his concerns regarding their safety believing that it wasn’t his responsibility. At some point, later, an unknown conflict ensued which resulted in a fire which engulfed the community and his wife was caught and burned to death leaving Richard to defend his young daughter. After 3 days of travelling with no food and no sleep, Richard and Katy found themselves in a precarious dilemma which resulted in Katy being devoured by walkers leaving Richard on his own. Sometime after this event, Richard later encountered Ezekiel with whom he came to develop a fierce loyalty towards and subsequently settled into his community named The Kingdom.Hearts Still Beating Upon assimilating into community, Richard managed to regain a sense of purpose and thus committed himself in ensuring the safety of his fellow residents and in the process, became one of Ezekiel’s trusted allies alongside Jerry, David, Dianne and significantly later Benjamin.The Well Roughly during this period, Richard managed to befriend Paul Rovia, a scout for a nearby community named the Hilltop Colony upon where the two came to develop a trusting partnership, and thus a trading system was established between the two communities, despite this however he gained a lesser opinion on the community leader Gregory for his cowardice.Rock in the Road Richard was present at the time of the arrival of a notorious group of survivors named the Saviors who operated on behalf of Negan. Upon meeting, the Saviors demanded a portion of supplies in exchange for leaving the community unscathed, to which Ezekiel complied under the condition that the Saviour’s would never step foot inside The Kingdom. Throughout the following months Richard aided his group in gathering supplies in order to compensate towards the Saviors demands and thus he took part in several conducted weekly trades between the two groups, which he alongside Ezekiel, and several others kept secretly hidden from the rest of the community. Season 7 "The Well" Richard attends the feral pig hunt with Ezekiel, newcomer Morgan Jones, Benjamin, Dianne, Alvaro, and Jerry. After the pigs are herded into a garage, he allows the pigs to feed upon a walker tied up in a room, stating that he wants their bellies filled with rot for the Saviors. After Dianne loads up the truck with the captured pigs, Richard drives separately from the group back to the Kingdom. Later, he is present at the exchange with the Saviors and gets into an altercation with a young Savior. He manages to dodge Jared's initial blow and punches him in the face in return, prompting everyone to raise their weapons. As Ezekiel attempts to diffuse the situation, Jared knocks Richard to the ground and punches him several times before being ordered off of him by the lead Savior. As the Saviors drive away, Gavin informs the Kingdom group that Richard will be the first killed if next week's food drop is too light. A bloodied Richard looks on and scoffs at the Saviors as they drive away. "Hearts Still Beating" Richard stops by at Carol's cottage to speak with her and Morgan. Richard reveals his fears to Carol and Morgan; He doesn’t think The Kingdom can co-exist with the Saviors. He believes they will inevitably destroy the Kingdom. Richard asks Carol and Morgan to help him convince Ezekiel to strike first. Carol refuses to have anything to do with it and insists on being left alone. Morgan hesitates to disrupt the peace with the Saviors. Richard dejectedly leaves. He enters a camper trailer hidden in the woods. He hurls an empty milk bottle and cries. "Rock in the Road" Richard and Alvaro arrive on horseback. Jesus makes introductions to Rick's group and and explains that they have similar interests. After some hesitation, Richard invites them to follow him. Richard, assuming Rick is interested in becoming a trade partner, confides in Jesus. He stresses their need to battle the Saviors. Jesus assures Richard that he has good news. Richard takes Rick’s group inside the Kingdom, where they reunite with Morgan and then to the theater, where they meet King Ezekiel. Rick asks Ezekiel to help them fight the Saviors. Ezekiel reprimands Jesus for telling Rick about his deal with the Saviors. They plead their case; in the process, Richard urges Ezekiel to fight the Saviors before things get worse, Morgan, asked for his opinion by Ezekiel himself, advises that they must find a non-violent course. Ezekiel shows reluctance to join the fight, saying that he has peace with the Saviors and refuses to break it. However he offers asylum in the Kingdom to Daryl Dixon who recently escaped the Saviors' custody. Rick explains to Richard that they don’t have the numbers to take out even one outpost. Richard realizes it’s not just about the numbers; they’re making the Saviors stronger every day by providing food, weapons and supplies "New Best Friends" Richard, Ezekiel, Morgan and other members of The Kingdom are waiting at the pickup location for the Saviors’ collections. The Saviors arrive and Gavin comments that the drop looks light, but Ezekiel tells him they have met their obligations and Gavin agrees. Jared says that he wants Richard's gun and the two men face off. Ezekiel tells Richard to hand over his gun, which he reluctantly does. When Jared lunges at Richard, Morgan strikes him with his staff. Jared seizes the staff and hits Richard and Morgan with it, so Benjamin strikes Jared and sends him to the floor. Ezekiel bans Richard from attending future exchanges, but Gavin stops and tells him to keep bringing Richard and tells him he will be the first to go if he doesn't stop going against them and as the Saviors prepare to leave, Morgan asks for his staff back but Jared leaves with it. Ezekiel tells Richard he will talk later about his behavior. In the archery area, Richard practices shooting a bow. Daryl joins him and he gives Daryl a crossbow and asks him for pointers, explaining that they share the same goal: killing the Saviors. Richard says that Morgan told him he was a bowman and hands him a new crossbow and asks for his help. Richard takes Daryl to his hidden camper trailer in the woods. He explains that they have to hit the Saviors first, but in order for that to happen, they need something to move Ezekiel. He stocks up on guns and makes a Molotov cocktail. Richard tells Daryl his plan to kill the Saviors when they pass and when the others find them, they will follow a trail that leads to a weapons cache then to a house that someone Ezekiel cares about is living in. When Richard mentions it’s a woman, Daryl demands to know her name. Richard reluctantly says it’s Carol and he was hoping he didn’t know who she was. Daryl refuses to put her in danger, and when Richard is about to go ahead, Daryl tackles him to the ground and they fight. Daryl threatens Richard that should any form of harm come to Carol he will kill him. Richard says that he would proudly die for the Kingdom. "Why don't you?", Daryl counters before he leaves. Richard is shown later when Daryl leaves the Kingdom. He looks back at Morgan, who then looks to Richard. "Bury Me Here" Richard is first seen digging a hole in the dirt behind an urban lot. Next to the hole is a child’s backpack, with the name “Katy” written on it. Ezekiel’s crew loads cantaloupes onto a truck for their scheduled drop with the Saviors. Richard apologizes to Morgan for their strained relationship. He warns Morgan that he will have to kill some day. En route to the drop, Ezekiel’s crew encounters a row of shopping carts blocking the road near an urban lot. They search the area, weapons ready. Richard covers the group from behind. They find an open grave with a sign, “Bury me here.” They move the carts off the road and continue on their way. The Kingdommers arrive late for the supply drop. After Jerry tells Gavin off for interrupting Ezekiel, he is struck by Jared, to whom Benjamin shows his extreme displeasure towards, Jared shoots him a nasty glare. As Gavin inspects the Kingdom's share of cantaloupes, he discovers that they are short of one. The two groups draw their weapons on each other. Richard advises Ezekiel to disarm and is promptly mocked by Jared. and Gavin gives the order to shoot one of the Kingdommers as retribution for not keeping to their deal. Jared raises his gun and points it at Richard, point blank. “Just do it,” Richard tells him. Jared shifts his hand at the last second before pulling the trigger, and shoots Benjamin in the leg; upon seeing who was shot, Gavin reprimands Jared and orders Morgan's stick returned. As Benjamin begins bleeding rapidly, the Saviors offer one more chance, allowing The Kingdom another day to supply drop in the final melon. They leave the Kingdommers to tend to Benjamin. Ezekiel’s crew drives to Carol’s cottage and rushes Benjamin inside. They try to treat his wound. Richard stands back, watching in shock. Despite the efforts of everyone present, Benjamin does not survive the injury, and dies on the table. He is stabbed in the head by Morgan to prevent reanimation. Morgan confronts Richard in his room, realizing that Richard intentionally hid the cantaloupe, and caused Benjamin to die. “It was supposed to be me,” Richard laments. He explains that he planned to provoke the Saviors into killing him, as Gavin had promised he’d be the first to die if anything went wrong. He’d hoped his death over something so petty would motivate Ezekiel to fight the Saviors. Richard begins to tell his story prior to the outbreak, how he had a wife and a daughter named Katy. Bringing up these memories brings tears to Richards eye as Morgan stands idly by listening. "There was a fire, and I lost my wife. And after days of running with no food and no sleep.....Of horror and terror.......I lost my little girl" After pulling himself together after telling his agonizing story, he proposes they do something to regain the Saviors’ trust, to show them that they “get it”, and then destroy them with help from Alexandria and the Hilltop. Richard explains that someone had to die, and he was ready to be that person, but something else happened, something Richard had no control over. Morgan simply remains silent throughout the entire speech. The very next day, Morgan walked up to Richard as they stood before the saviors and asked "Did you?" Richard replied "We'll talk about it later" Where Ezekiel asks "Talk about what?" Richard reluctantly replied "Its better to speak of it later your majesty" But Ezekiel slowly catches on and replies worriedly "We will speak of it now" But their short conversation was cut off as Gavin and his crew pulled up in their trucks and got out. Gavin asked "How's the kid" Upon seeing nothing but grim faces from the Kingdom, Gavin realized that Jared has actually killed Benjamin at the previous exchange, to which he responds to by telling Jared to begin walking away from the exchange, threatening to kill him if he "threw one look or say one word" Jared complies and walks away from the exchange, appearing to be embarrassed at his superiors commands. After Jared has been long gone, Richard brings the lonely cantaloupe that caused the death of Benjamin over the Gavin and says "I just wanted to say, we get it. We understand" And then out of nowhere, Morgan walks up to Richard and whacks him twice with his staff from behind. After allowing Richard to fall to the ground, Morgan pounces on top of him and begins to strangle him to death with no remorse. Ezekiel is shocked by Morgans actions and shouts "Cease this!" But Gavin wanted Richard to die, so he responds with "Let em be!" as the Saviors aim guns at Ezekiel and his men, likely to shoot if they attempted to stop Morgan. As Richard lied helplessly on the ground, giving little resistance, Morgan finishes him by throwing Richards head on to the concrete twice. As Richard let out his last gasp of air Ezekiel looked as if he was going to cry over the incident, for Richard had been close to him for many years. Morgan then begins to say how Richard made them late for their exchange that got Benjamin killed, and how he wanted war with the Saviors. He then stands up from the lifeless corpse of Richard and walks over to Gavin, who jolts back in fear. Morgan said "I just wanted to show you that we understand what it is we need to do, that we know how to go on." Gavin shakes his head "Good." And walks away from the exchange. As Ezekiel stands there in complete shock he asks Morgan "He...He did this?" Morgan responds by saying "Thought he could chose and that's why Duane had to die." Ezekiel looked confused for a moment as he asks "Duane?" But Morgan was quick to correct himself "Benjamin...Benjamin...That's why Benjamin had to die." Ezekiel asks Morgan to come with him but Morgan simply tells him to leave. Ezekiel and his men drive away from the scene in complete shock as Morgan takes out his knife and stabs Richard in the head to prevent him from reanimating into a walker. Morgan then drags Richards body to the grave he dug for himself saying "Bury me here". As Morgan begins to fill up the hole he notices Richards Daughters backpack in a pile of dirt. Morgan seemed to regret killing Richard then, for he knew what it was like to lose someone he loved dearly. He then buries the backpack with Richard and after he's finished, gets up in a fit of rage and begins to slaughter a herd of walkers with his staff. Killed Victims This list shows the victims Richard has killed: *Benjamin (Indirectly Caused) *Himself (Indirectly Caused) *Numerous counts of zombies Death Killed By * Jared (Indirectly Caused) * Morgan Jones Jared is at fault for his death, for it was him that shot Benjamin and caused Morgans rage. After Morgan finds out that it was Richard's fault that the drop was light by 1 melon resulting in Benjamin's death, he starts showing signs of his previous PTSD. During their next delivery to the Saviors, Morgan whacks Richard on the back of his head with Benjamin's stick. Afterwards, he mounts and strangles Richard while also bashing his head into the asphalt. After the drop ends, Morgan pulls out a knife and stabs Richard in the brain to prevent him from reanimating and later buries his body in the grave he dug for himself. Relationships Appearances TV Series Season 7 *"The Well" *"Hearts Still Beating" *"Rock in the Road" *"New Best Friends" *"Bury Me Here" Trivia *The casting call for this character used the name Rogers. *Richard owned a backpack belonging to Katy, which he keeps as a personal memento of her. References Category:Season 7 Characters Category:The Kingdom Category:Deceased Category:Suicidal Category:Depressed